Hospital & community psychiatry
-
Hosp Community Psychiatry · Dec 1990
Characteristics of psychiatric emergency room patients with alcohol- or drug-induced disorders.
Although emergency room psychiatrists are often faced with evaluating and planning treatment for patients who abuse substances, there is limited information about the characteristics of emergency room patients with alcohol- or drug-induced disorders. The authors describe the demographic and clinical characteristics of 343 consecutive patients referred to a general hospital's emergency psychiatry service. ⋯ They also demonstrated increased suicidality. Alcohol was the predominant substance that contributed to psychiatric emergencies, but a surprising number of patients were diagnosed as having amphetamine-induced disorders, possibly representing an important trend.